said the night before. >> i'm sorry, i'm going to stop this subsidy to pbs. i'm going to stop subsidies to other things. i like pbs. i like big bird. i like you, too, actually. >> when he was asked what he would do to cut the deficit and reduce spending, he said he would eliminate funding for public television. [ laughter ] >> boo! >> that was his answer. >> i mean, thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on big bird! [ laughter ] >> reporter: big bird smack-dab in the middle of politics. so the candidates have a little under two weeks to prepare for their next face-off. they are going to be meeting in a town hall style debate in new york on october 16th. cnn's candy crowley will moderate that. and then on october 22nd, they will be talking about foreign policy in florida. that final forum will be moderated by bob schieffer who was of course from cbs. the vice-presidential candidates meet up on tuesday and the indication already is that they will not have as much leeway to control the conversation during that i debate as they did last night. there's